Archive for February, 2011

One day Hun Sen’s eldest son, Hun Manet brings home his girlfriend and tells his father he wants to marry her. After talking to her for while, he tells his son he can’t do it because she’s his half sister. The same problem happens again four more times! Hun Manet starts to get pissed off. He goes to his mom, Bun Rany and says, “Mom… What have you been doing all your life? Dad’s been going around laying every maiden in the country and now I can’t marry any of the five girls I like because they have turned out to be my half sisters!!!”

His mom replies, “Don’t worry son, you can marry any one of them you want, he isn’t really your dad.”

Saem Ponnreay, CMAC Unit 3 director in Sa Em village in Preah Vihear province, displays the remains of a 155mm cluster bomb, which he claims was fired by the Thai military and landed in Svay Cherum village on February 6. (Photo by: Michael Hayes)

Monday, 28 February 2011
Vong Sokheng
The Phnom Penh Post

The Cambodian Mine Action Centre is preparing to dispatch a team to search for cluster munitions allegedly used by Thai forces during military clashes along the border last month, CMAC director general Heng Ratana said today.

Thousands of families were displaced last month during clashes between Thai and Cambodian troops near Preah Vihear temple that left at least 10 people dead.

As these families return to their homes, Heng Ratana said they are still at grave risk of being injured by cluster munitions.

“We are very concerned about the upcoming rainy season,” Heng Ratana said.

“Villagers will need to go out and do farming, but now the area is full of cluster bombs.”

Thai officials have denied using cluster munitions in the fighting, alleging that Cambodian troops had in fact deployed the weapons.

Cambodian forces have rejected this claim.

Cluster bombs are designed to split open before impact to scatter multiple bomblets over a wide area.

Such bomblets often lie dormant for many years before exploding and maiming or killing the civilians who happen upon them.

Much of eastern Cambodia has been affected by the weapons as a result of American bombing in the 1970s.

Neither Cambodia nor Thailand are among the 51 countries to have ratified the 2008 Convention on Cluster Munitions, which seeks to outlaw the weapons, however.

Heng Ratana said today that two Cambodians had been killed and eight injured as a result of cluster bombs deployed near Preah Vihear.

Following the four days of clashes last month, CMAC announced that it had dispatched an “emergency response” team to the border area to instruct local residents on how to identify and avoid the weapons.

CMAC also plans to send weapons experts to the area to find and clear cluster munitions before they harm unsuspecting villagers, Heng Ratana said.

“We are waiting until the situation returns to normal and then we will deploy a large search team, because the cluster bombs may remain on the ground or in the forest,” he said.

Chum Puy, governor of Kulen district in Preah Vihear province, said posters had been put up throughout the border area to remind the 2,678 families displaced in the fighting about the dangers of cluster munitions as they return to their homes.

Huot Senheang, 22, of Kulen’s Thamacheat village, said residents understand the risks of cluster munitions but may find them difficult to avoid as they return to their daily lives.

“Villagers are afraid of cluster bombs, but they have no choice because they need to return home for farming,” he said.

The army plans to restrict access of neutral observers invited by Thai and Cambodian government to monitor the border to certain areas and information, citing national security reasons.

“We will have to restrict their access to classified information at some level . We are not going to let them see everything,’’ army commander-in-chief Gen Prayuth Chan-ocha said on Tuesday.

Thailand and Cambodia agreed to invite Indonesia to deploy observers on both sides of the disputed border area at the Asean foreign ministerial meeting in Jakarta last week.

He said a detailed schedule of the observers’ visit is expected to be released after the Thai-Cambodia Joint Border Committee (JBC) meeting next month.

The Suranaree Task Force and the 2nd Army will then be commissioned to look into the details and take care of the matter.

“I want it [the Thai-Cambodian border conflict] to remain a bilateral issue and do not want any third country to step in, therefore imposing limits on access is needed,’’ Gen Prayuth said.

The commander-in-chief said the army must follow government policy and will heed the United Nation Security Council’s calls for a peaceful resolution of the conflict.

A group of military and civilian observers from Indonesia, the current Asean chairman, will visit affected areas of the border to observe the commitment of both Thailand and its neighbour to avoid further hostilities.

The observers’ mandate is to assist and support the parties in respecting their commitment to avoid further fighting, by observing and reporting accurately and impartially complaints of violations and submitting findings to each party through Indonesia.

ONE effect of the global economic crisis seldom discussed amid reports of a liquidity crisis and garment sector meltdown was the impact on Cambodia’s manufacturing progress.

In 2008, Cambodia was on the brink of attracting large multinational companies looking for new sources of cheap labour and the latest frontiers of market growth. But these firms subsequently “stayed at home”, in the words of Sok Chenda, secretary general of the Council for the Development of Cambodia, as CEOs looked to damage limitation rather than expansion overseas.

In Cambodia’s case, the economic crisis looks to have only stalled – rather than aborted – the start of a long-awaited transition from labour-intensive industry towards more complex manufacturing. And increasingly, it is Japan that is driving this industrial evolution.

Confirmation at the weekend that Sumitomo Electric Industries, a Fortune-500 company, plans to become the latest Japanese firm to build a plant here provides the most recent evidence Cambodia is finally expanding manufacturing beyond the confines of the garment industry.

Sumitomo follows Minebea, Ajinomoto and Yamaha – all Japanese firms that have in recent months either opened or committed to manufacturing plants in the Kingdom.

Chinese firms have long had a manufacturing presence here, but most have limited themselves to the garment industry. Instead, China’s industrial base has had a more indirect impact on the stuttering manufacturing progress starting to take shape in Cambodia.

If China’s entry into Cambodian garments was partly due to the United States initiating quotas on Chinese clothing and apparel in 2005, according to some analysts, then the recent entry of more international complex industry into Cambodia can also be traced back to the mainland to an extent.

Masayoshi Matsumoto, president of Sumitomo Electric, told Kyodo News the firm’s decision to expand manufacturing to Cambodia and the Philippines later this year was due to a labour shortage and wage rises in China.

Minebea’s announcement at the end of last year that it would set up a production facility in Cambodia represents the first time the company would have opened a large-scale manufacturing plant in a new country since it did so in Shanghai 17 years ago.

The firm begins its first production in Cambodia in April at a leased factory before relocating to a US$61 million facility in the Phnom Penh Special Economic Zone next year, a plant that will rank second only in volume to Minebea’s China operation. This represents a significant moment for Cambodia.

While cynics will note these companies are coming here for the cheap labour, tax breaks and access to a new, untapped market, the benefits for the country will likely be substantial.

Minebea alone plans to hire 5,000 people in the longer term, workers that would otherwise have been hired at minimum-wage garment factories, or worse. These are employees that will be trained to assemble small electric motors for office and household electronic equipment, goods that have never been manufactured in the Kingdom previously.

Similarly, Sumitomo plans to make automotive wire harnesses, the latest sign the vehicle industry is starting to look at Cambodia as a production base following recent interest by Hyundai and Yamaha.

Within the long, arduous cycle of industrial evolution this marks solid progress for the country, not least because Japanese firms have over the past half a century represented the pinnacle of manufacturing.

For Cambodia, learning from companies like Sumitomo and Minebea is perhaps the most significant benefit that can be drawn from these new relationships. Cambodia’s manufacturing progress is as much about keeping multinationals here to gain increased expertise as it is about the revenues that can be generated from them. Just ask China.

If Japan is the master of developing technology then China is surely the more recent master of co-opting innovation for maximum gain. Now the economic crisis is over, Cambodia can get back to following their example.

Thai Yellow Shirt activist Veera Somkwamkid is led to Phnom Penh Municipal Court for sentencing last month. Veera is preparing to appeal to the Prime Minister for a pardon.

Monday, 28 February 2011
Vong Sokheng
The Phnom Penh Post

A pair of Thai nationalists convicted of espionage earlier this month in a highly charged case are preparing to appeal to Prime Minister Hun Sen for their release, a defence lawyer said yesterday.

Veera Somkwamkid, a high-profile member of Thailand’s nationalist Yellow Shirt movement, was convicted of espionage, illegal entry and unlawfully entering a military base along with an associate, Ratree Pipatanapaiboon.

Veera, 53, was sentenced to eight years in jail and ordered to pay 1.8 million riel (about US$444) in fines, while Ratree received a six-year prison term.

“I am preparing all the documents to request a pardon and we will submit the letter to the Premier soon,” said Pich Vicheka, Veera’s Cambodian lawyer.

“I am not sure what the result will be, but I have to fulfil my professional obligation to help my client.”

Veera and Ratree were arrested in December in Banteay Meanchey province along with five other Thais, including parliamentarian Panich Vikitsreth, who were on an expedition to “investigate” the border demarcation process with Cambodia.

Panich and the other four Thais were found guilty of illegal entry last month but were released on suspended sentences.

In a speech earlier this month, Hun Sen rejected the possibility of pardons for Veera and Ratree.

“Don’t come to persuade me to ask for a royal pardon, I will not do that and [the case] will be enforced under the law this time,” he said.

Under Cambodian law, prisoners are eligible for pardon after serving two-thirds of their jail sentences.

In 2009, however, the government released a Thai national sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage charges just days after his conviction.

The suspect, an airport engineer named Sivarak Chutipong, was arrested for allegedly passing the flight details of Thaksin Shinawatra to the Thai Embassy during one of the fugitive former Thai prime minister’s controversial visits to the Kingdom.

Thai officials could not be reached for comment yesterday, though Thai state media reported that the country’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs was working on the pardon request and that the Thai embassy in Cambodia had “negotiated a compromise with concerned authorities” in relation to the case.

Ros Aun, a defence lawyer for Ratree, said he was unaware of the pardon request but confirmed that his client had elected not to appeal her conviction.

VietNamNet Bridge – Thousands of Vietnamese women have become familiar clients of casinos along the Vietnam-Cambodia border.

There are 14 casinos in Cambodia, which are located very near from the Vietnam-Cambodia border. Up to half of them (Winn, Le Macao, Chateau, Las Vegas Sun or Titan King) are built in Bavet in Svay Rieng province to mainly serve Vietnamese gamblers. Vietnamese gamblers, including thousands of women, often pass the Moc Bai border gate in the southern province of Tay Ninh to Bavet.

VietNamNet’s reporters visited casino Winn at 10 am on a Saturday. This casino is known recently for ruthless assaults against indebted gamblers.

According to the casino’s rules, visitors are not allowed to bring cell phones, cameras, sound recorders, etc. into the casino. These items must be locked in the casino’s safety boxes. Casino staffs in black trousers and white shirts always smile with customers.

The casino was chock-a-block with gamblers, especially at baccarat, roulette and black jack tables.

Casino Winn, a popular destination in the tours of a transnational tourism company, is decorated luxuriously. The rooms are lit with hundreds of lamps, which make gamblers forget the time.

Around one hour after we entered the casino, the number of players at black jack tables increased sharply. Around 70 percent of them were women.

A middle-aged woman approached us, introducing herself as Hien, a Vietnamese, a creditor at the casino. Hien said she was able to lend us as much as we need. After we refused to borrow money from her, M, a guide said that if a gambler borrows $100, he will have to pay $10 for each winning game. In the case that the gambler loses all his money, the creditor will send his/her employees to escort the debtor to his/her home to take money or call the debtor’s family to come to the casino to pay the debt to ransom the debtor.

There are a lot of tragedies related to Vietnamese women at this casino. Hoang, a former staff member at casino Winn, who currently works for a car repair shop in Bavet, said, “Many Vietnamese women often give guards VND50,000-70,000 to remind them to call their husbands at a certain time to trick their husbands into thinking that they are at home”.

Hoang said some women lost tens of thousands of USD a day at gambling.

Recently HCM City People’s Court sentenced four women who swindled assets to gamble in Cambodia. One was sentenced to 13 years in jail and three others to 3-5 years in jail.

These women leased at least six cars at the price of $1300/month and then mortgaged the cars for $15,000 in Tay Ninh to gamble in Cambodian casinos.

In the latest case, the wife of a journalist in the southern province of Long An has just confessed to burning her husband to death after he didn’t agree to sell their house to pay her debts at casinos in Cambodia.

This case is now the center of public attention and is fresh evidence of the tragedies caused by women who are gambling addicts.

In recent years “gambling ladies” have become familiar words in the local media. In HCM City alone, police investigated hundreds of gambling cases each year and over half of the gamblers are women.

According to police, women who gamble at home belong to various social classes but there are a few really rich women. However, most of women who gamble in Cambodia are wealthy women or state employees.

In 2008, the cashier of the Post Office of Bac Lieu province was sentenced to death for appropriating over VND15.3 billion ($765,000) to gamble.

In October 2009, Vu Thi Ba, 32, an employee of a state agency in Ha Dong district, Hanoi, was prosecuted for appropriating a car for money to gamble.

In HCM City, a woman named Trang is very “famous” among casino ladies. The young girl gambled in Hanoi, Hai Phong, HCM City, Tay Ninh and Cambodia. She lost up to $40,000 a night at a casino in Cambodia.

She used fake documents to withdraw over VND400 million ($20,000) of a joint stock company in Hanoi.

In May 2010, police arrested Nguyen Thi Hanh, 32, in the Central Highlands province of Gia Lai for swindling. Earlier Hanh was a famous coffee trader in Gia Lai. From July to November 2009, this women received cash from partners to purchase coffee and borrowed money from four companies and eleven individuals totaling over VND17 billion (around $900,000). However, she only paid over VND5 billion for coffee and gambled away the remaining cash.

Other tragedies

Dozens of gamblers in Binh Duong and Tay Ninh province fell into the trap of usurers at casinos in Cambodia.

According to victims who were cleaned out in gambling and ransomed by their families, intermediates introduced them to a young man named Khoa at Winn casino in Bavet, Cambodia. When they arrived at the Moc Bai border gate in Tay Ninh, Khoa’s subordinates took them to the casino and they were treated like special guests.

Nguyen Huu Ba, 20, from Ben Cat district, Binh Duong province, recalled: “After we met with Khoa at Winn casino, he hired a hotel room for us. After taking a bath, Khoa took us to a restaurant. He told us that we would not get rich if we quit after 1-2 losing games”.

When Ba and his friends were nearly drunken Khoa paid the meal and gave $4000 to Ba and his three friends to gamble at Winn casino.

After several hours at the casino, the group lost all $4000. They borrowed $2000 from Khoa to continue the game and also lost the money. They asked Khoa to lend them some more but Khoa told them to temporarily stop because they had bad luck. He took the group to a restaurant for lunch and after that forced them to an inn to sign a debit note. Khoa said that if their families didn’t pay the debts, he would cut out some of their internal organs.

Of dozens Vietnamese gamblers confided at Winn casino for losing at gambling, many are very poor and wanted to change their lives with the money won.

Nguyen Thi Dung, 41, from Ben Cat District, Binh Duong province said that her family has three times paid $10,000 of ransom to rescue her son from casinos .

Nguyen Minh, also from Ben Cat district, had to pay the ransom for his son twice. “The first time he was confided, we had to mortgage our motorbikes, fridge, television set and borrow from usurers to get $5000 to pay the ransom”.

“They called me and said that they made cuts on his face and that if I didn’t save him, they would cut out his kidney,” Minh said.

Minh and his wife had to see an usurer and kneel down to borrow $3000 to pay the ransom.

Koichiro Matsuura, special envoy of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) said on Monday that it is impossible to de-list Preah Vihear temple from the World Heritage List.

Matsuura made the remarks during a meeting with Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen.

“Thailand has intention to ask UNESCO to de-list the temple, but I had informed Abhisit Vejjajiva (Thai prime minister) and Kasit Piromya (Thai foreign minister) that de-listing of Preah Vihear temple from the World Heritage List is impossible by all means because Preah Vihear temple is the outstanding universal value,” the Prime Minister’s spokesman Eang Sophalleth quoted Matsuura as saying.

“Preah Vihear temple, the World Heritage site, is under the responsibility of UNESCO, so UNESCO experts will come to evaluate and restore Preah Vihear temple in the future,”Matsuura told the premier.

Meanwhile, Hun Sen informed Matsuura that Thai troops had fired more than 400 shells of mortars and artillery at the temple which caused serious damages to the World Heritage site. The premier also asked the World Heritage Committee (WHC) not to halt the temple’s management plan during its annual meeting in Bahrain in June.

“The management plan of the temple by UNESCO on the World Heritage site should not be abandoned due to the threat of Thailand,”Hun Sen said, adding “if we don’t do urgent repair, Preah Vihear temple will be in danger. Moreover, it will set a bad precedent that big country’s threat made UNESCO unable to manage and preserve the world heritage site.”

Matsuura told reporters after the meeting that”UNESCO is not sided with any country, it is neutral.”

Matsuura, a former director-general of UNESCO (1999-2009) and a former Chair of the World Heritage Committee, was named by Irina Bokova, director-general of UNESCO, on Feb. 11 as the special envoy to mediate the issue of Preah Vihear temple following a deadly clash from Feb. 4 to 7 between Cambodian and Thai troops over the border disputed area next to the temple. He arrived here on Sunday to pay a three-day visit.

The clash unleashed a barrage of artillery shells on both sides of the border, killed and wounded some soldiers and people of both sides, as well as caused serious damages to Preah Vihear temple.

Preah Vihear Temple was inscribed on the World Heritage List in 2008.

The conflict has occurred just a week after the inscription due to Thai claim of the ownership of 1.8 square miles (4.6 sq km) of scrub next to the temple, since then periodic clashes have happened between the two countries’ troops resulted in the deaths of troops on both sides.

MANILA, Philippines – Ilocos Norte Rep. Imelda Romualdez-Marcos on Monday asked the Sandiganbayan Fifth Division to allow her to go on an official 5-day trip to Phnom Penh, Cambodia next month.

Defense lawyer Robert Sison said the 81-year-old widow of former President Ferdinand Marcos is part of the country’s three-member delegation to the ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Assembly (AIPA) Seminar on “Accelerating the Achievement of MDG-5, through the Role of Women Parliamentarians” to be held on March 9 to 12, 2011 at the Inter-continental Hotel in Phnom Penh.

The former First Lady is required to secure a travel permit each time she has to leave the country because of her 10 remaining active graft cases before the Sandiganbayan.

The cases involve allegations that she held financial interests in secret foundations and private enterprises while she was a member of the Interim Batasang Pambansa from 1978 to 1984.

Marcos has complained that years of litigation have drained her resources so that she now has to withdraw from her husband’s pension at Veterans Bank to be able to put up the P750,00 travel bond required by the graft court.

For this trip however, it is the House of Representatives that will pay for the airfare and daily allowances of the country’s delegation. The host country, on the other hand, will cover their hotel accommodations.

Mrs. Marcos is serving a new three-year term as a member of the Lower House having previously served a single-term as congresswoman of her native province Leyte in 1995.

International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
Ratified, acceded by UN General Assembly in December 1966, entry into force March 1976. Cambodia ratified the ICCPR (thus, a part of Cambodia’s body of laws) and is obligated to submit regular reports to the United Nations.PART IVArticle 421.(a) If a matter referred to the [Human Rights] Committee in accordance with article 41 is not resolved to the satisfaction of the States Parties concerned, the Committee may, with the prior consent of the States Parties concerned, appoint an ad hoc Conciliation Commission (hereinafter referred to as the Commission). The good offices of the Commission shall be made available to the States Parties concerned with a view to an amicable solution of the matter on the basis of respect for the present Covenant;(b) The Commission shall consist of five persons acceptable to the States Parties concerned. If the States Parties concerned fail to reach agreement within three months on all or part of the composition of the Commission, the members of the Commission concerning whom no agreement has been reached shall be elected by secret ballot by a two-thirds majority vote of the Committee from among its members.2. The members of the Commission shall serve in their personal capacity. They shall not be nationals of the States Parties concerned, or of a State not Party to the present Covenant, or of a State Party which has not made a declaration under article 41.3. The Commission shall elect its own Chairman and adopt its own rules of procedure.4. The meetings of the Commission shall normally be held at the Headquarters of the United Nations or at the United Nations Office at Geneva. However, they may be held at such other convenient places as the Commission may determine in consultation with the Secretary-General of the United Nations and the States Parties concerned.5. The secretariat provided in accordance with article 36 shall also service the commissions appointed under this article.6. The information received and collated by the Committee shall be made available to the Commission and the Commission may call upon the States Parties concerned to supply any other relevant information.7. When the Commission has fully considered the matter, but in any event not later than twelve months after having been seized of the matter, it shall submit to the Chairman of the Committee a report for communication to the States Parties concerned:(a) If the Commission is unable to complete its consideration of the matter within twelve months, it shall confine its report to a brief statement of the status of its consideration of the matter;(b) If an amicable solution to the matter on tie basis of respect for human rights as recognized in the present Covenant is reached, the Commission shall confine its report to a brief statement of the facts and of the solution reached;(c) If a solution within the terms of subparagraph (b) is not reached, the Commission’s report shall embody its findings on all questions of fact relevant to the issues between the States Parties concerned, and its views on the possibilities of an amicable solution of the matter. This report shall also contain the written submissions and a record of the oral submissions made by the States Parties concerned;(d) If the Commission’s report is submitted under subparagraph (c), the States Parties concerned shall, within three months of the receipt of the report, notify the Chairman of the Committee whether or not they accept the contents of the report of the Commission.8. The provisions of this article are without prejudice to the responsibilities of the Committee under article 41.9. The States Parties concerned shall share equally all the expenses of the members of the Commission in accordance with estimates to be provided by the Secretary-General of the United Nations.10. The Secretary-General of the United Nations shall be empowered to pay the expenses of the members of the Commission, if necessary, before reimbursement by the States Parties concerned, in accordance with paragraph 9 of this article.